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Air Quality Control For Your Office Trailer
Make Sure You Breathe Quality Air With These Tips
Portable buildings can be great classrooms. They are cost-effective and timely solutions to the pressing problems of overpopulation, natural disaster, or relocation that schools sometimes face. Portable classrooms are often the thing that allow students to keep learning regardless of the changes their school is undergoing--and that is priceless.
Perhaps because of the grace with which portable classrooms swoop in to save the day, and perhaps because of the economic climate, portable buildings often end up as a permanent part of the school environment. This near constant yearly use can highlight and emphasize one of the chief problems with portable classrooms: their air quality. Poor air quality in any building can exacerbate respiratory conditions like asthma, and can cause allergic reactions in your students to mold, bacteria, and chemicals.
Read on to educate yourself on the most common air-quality culprits in portable classrooms, and how to avoid them.
Bad Ventilation and HVAC. The most important thing in your portable classroom is the ventilation and the HVAC system. If the HVAC system isn't working properly you could have a build-up of construction material chemicals, carbon-monoxide, and particulates in your air. Any of these can cause potentially life-threatening reactions in your students. Make sure that your HVAC system is free of dust and leaks, and that it gets regular tune-ups from a trained professional.
Off Gassing From Construction Materials. Construction materials used in your portable classroom can off-gas potentially dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde into the air. While conventionally built classrooms also use materials containing formaldehyde, they are usually not inhabited as soon after construction as portable classrooms are, thus mitigating the risk of off-gassing chemicals.
In addition to having a properly functioning HVAC system to regulate ventilation, make sure that your portable classroom is built to code using sanctioned building materials.
Particulate Polution. In addition to the unseen threat of chemicals and poor ventilation, particulates like mold and dust are important to consider as well. If a plumbing fixture or an HVAC pipe has a leak, this water could cause the growth of potentially deadly mold in your portable classroom. A dirty HVAC system can blow dust into your portable classroom as well--so make sure to stay current on your portable classroom maintenance.
As you can see, it isn't hard to ensure proper air quality in your portable classroom. The saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of care" applies here, though. The more regularly you mantain your portable classroom, the more likely you will never have a problem.
Ask your portable classroom vendor for recommended maintenance professionals in your area--they are likely to know the best way you can get quality care for your portable classroom.